{"id":1094,"date":"2020-06-04T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-04T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/?p=1094"},"modified":"2020-06-24T11:59:58","modified_gmt":"2020-06-24T15:59:58","slug":"my-very-dear-maria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/?p=1094","title":{"rendered":"My Very Dear Maria"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This lengthy missive was penned by Tapping Reeve in March of 1807 following the rumors of a broken engagement of Maria Jones Tallmadge and Virgil Maxcy, who studied law in Litchfield following his graduation from Brown College in 1805. She was 15, he was 20.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Maria Tallmadge<\/a> was the daughter of Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge and Mary Floyd Tallmadge. She was born in Litchfield in 1790 and attended the Litchfield Female Academy from 1802-1802. According to Emily Noyes Vanderpoel’s Chronicles of a Pioneer School<\/a><\/em>, Tallmadge “took a prominent part in the school theatricals.” Virgil Maxcy was from Attleboro, MA. He was born May 5, 1785 to Levi and Ruth Newell Maxcy. Following his graduation from Brown College, Maxcy studied law in Litchfield, where the two likely met.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In 1807, rumors of a broken engagement led Tapping Reeve to write the letter shown above to Maria. He consoled her that, “your conscience if rightly informed must acquit you in<\/s> of any guilt in dismissing Mr Maxcy for I have no doubt that you struggled with your reluctant affections to make them yield.” Believe it or not, this is some of the best handwriting we’ve seen from Reeve! A full transcription is pasted below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the gossip, Maxcy must have pushed forward with his pursuit. He wrote a letter to Maria in 1809 in which he reminisced, “This evening, my beloved Maria is the anniversary of that, on which you acknowledged you loved me. At such a time, how many interesting recollections throng to my heart and swell it with emotion. I almost fancy myself seated by your side on the threshold of your father’s door in Litchfield. I almost fancy I see the mild beams of the moon sleeping upon the quiet scene and diffusing serenity and peace: the joy I felt then at your consenting to take a seat and suffering me to be so near you, revives again in my bosom: but more than all the image of my Angel Maria, declining her head towards her bosom while owning that she loved, rises like a vision of paradise upon my mind and revives the rapture, which thrilled thro’ my whole frame and almost deprives me of the power of utterance.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a possible reference to a prior rejection, Maxcy wrote: “And, surely if an attachment strong as it was Sincere, tried by disappointment and proved by perserverence, merits success, mine was not unworthy of it.” The pair were both teased about the affair, he in Baltimore where he had gone to practice law, and her in Litchfield. In the end, he was wrong. It’s unclear how their engagement was broken. No correspondence regarding the matter has been found. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Virgil Maxcy Lithograph, Public Domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Maxcy married Mary Galloway, the daughter of a slave trader and plantation owner in Maryland. I have found no documentation of their marriage, but several sites including find-a-grave date their nuptials to 1811. To learn more about his ultimate (and quite shocking) fate, visit his Ledger page.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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